No smog communication

[Bluefish]

Hey guys,

I just picked up a 96 ti. It was on its way to being sent to the scrapper due to the previous owner racking up fix it tickets for no registration because he could not smog the car.

The problem is the obdii port(s) will not communicate with the scanner so it fails the smog inspection.

There are a few other threads on here about the same issue, none of them reaching any conclusion..

I have a spare wiring harness that came with the car, I could change that out, but don't want to do it until I exhaust all other possibilities. The PO told me to swap the computer, that the one in the car has a euro tune. I don't see why that would affect communication.

Can anyone point me in the right direction? Or at least some direction lol.. I have a temp tag to drive it until the end of May so I have some time to play around.

TIA!

[tiFreak]

Originally Posted by Bluefish

The PO told me to swap the computer, that the one in the car has a euro tune. I don't see why that would affect communication.

Europe didn't begin using OBDII until around the year 2000 I believe, if that's a euro DME I can see why it wouldn't communicate

[Bluefish]

Originally Posted by tiFreak

Europe didn't begin using OBDII until around the year 2000 I believe, if that's a euro DME I can see why it wouldn't communicate

Lol.. that would explain it! Thank you! I'll work on tracking down a US DME. I'll make an ad in the wanted section, someone with a swapped car is bound to have one laying around.

[Strawman]

Be sure the port cap in the engine bay is completely screwed in; mine was partially open, and the under-dash port wouldn't read. Once we screwed the engine bay cap tightly, presto -- the under-dash port read perfectly. There are apparently jumpers in the engine bay cap...

Check on the Euro DME issue to be sure. My '96 318ti is from Italy (no sunroof, rear drum service/parking brakes, no rear antenna,etc.), but it passed CA smog a few weeks ago without a problem. Good luck!

[Bluefish]

Originally Posted by Strawman

Be sure the port cap in the engine bay is completely screwed in; mine was partially open, and the under-dash port wouldn't read. Once we screwed the engine bay cap tightly, presto -- the under-dash port read perfectly. There are apparently jumpers in the engine bay cap...

Check on the Euro DME issue to be sure. My '96 318ti is from Italy (no sunroof, rear drum service/parking brakes, no rear antenna,etc.), but it passed CA smog a few weeks ago without a problem. Good luck!

Hmm.. I really hope my issue is not somewhere in the wiring! I need to call RPM in Canada and see what they have to say. May also be able to get a clearer answer from the PO about what the issue is.

Thanks for the help, would hate to change out the DME, EWS, and key and still have it not work :/

[BlackBMWs]

Originally Posted by Bluefish

Hmm.. I really hope my issue is not somewhere in the wiring! I need to call RPM in Canada and see what they have to say. May also be able to get a clearer answer from the PO about what the issue is.

Thanks for the help, would hate to change out the DME, EWS, and key and still have it not work :/

Would you have to swap the EWS if you swap in a U.S. Spec DME? If not, and you want a quick test, we can pull my 97 DME and drop it in yours and see if the OBDII port wakes up. If it does, there's a SMOG shop on El Camino near Watt that runs Sunday specials for SMOG certifications.

I'd want to hang on to your dog until I get my DME back... I still have to SMOG mine.

PM me if you want to work something out. I have some availability on Sunday.